The Cheapest Way To Travel Around Europe

As I’m writing this both Franca and I are sitting in back of someone’s car, someone we’ve never met before we both threw our backpacks into the boot and jumped in to the back seats about half an hour ago.

How did we come to be in a stranger’s car travelling from our last Couchsurfing host’s apartment in Nantes to our next host in Rennes just over an hours drive away? Some of you might be thinking that it’s obvious, we’re surely hitchhiking, right?

Wrong.

In fact, we’re using what’s turned out to be the cheapest alternative to taking the train or bus across country, and also (as we’ve found out for ourselves), across Europe. How? We’re been carsharing with BlaBlaCar.

A Cheaper Way To Travel

Over the past few months we’ve travelled from Croatia to Germany, through Germany and on to Switzerland, Switzerland to France and from there on to Spain. Following on from that we’ve gone through Spain and now back into France and the saving we’ve made is huge, in fact, BlaBlaCar has been a budget travellers dream alternative.

During the months leading up to this we’ve used the car sharing site 13 times and for each of those, the lifts we’ve taken have been a mixture of short and long distances, cheap and almost always quicker than the alternative route via the bus or train.

The lifts of course vary a lot from ride to ride, from the size of car, the departure time and the starting and arrival points. The type of driver, however, is the greatest variable and as we’ve found you can meet people and talk with them about their local life in the country you’re in with greater ease than you might do from trying to talk with people on the street.

More Than Transportation

We tend to imagine BlaBlaCar a little like Couchsurfing; you never know who you might meet.

For example, some of our most notable lifts have been with other people who share the same desire to travel and – aside from the financial advantages – use it as a great way to learn about the world, sharing stories of their travels in times gone by or by eagerly learning about the world by listening to us rattle on about the places we’ve been over the past 18 months.

One driver from Zurich to Bern spent the entire journey eagerly telling us about his travels more than 30 years before as he attempted to hitchhike around Europe, telling us of the people he met, the situations he found himself in and of the places we should see. A viewpoint that beats any travel guide hands down.

Another was driving from Germany to Spain over the course of two days, picking up travellers on the way at pre-determined pick-up points organised through the website and the mobile app that he could easily use at rest stops along the way. Not only did he share his stories of his squeezing in as much travel as possible during his holidays, but also of his time learning to speak German back in his native Spain and sending himself to Munich to put it all into practice.

What made our experience even better and forever more memorable was his eagerness to leave us at the door of our Couchsurfing host’s house in Geneva. What happened next is a tale that can only be described as the incredible potential and hospitality of human beings.

Not only did he drop us off at our intended location, but after mentioning to our host on the phone that our lift would be heading off to find a hotel for just a few hours to sleep before heading off really early in the morning; he offered his house and couch open to him to use if he wished. Simply incredible.

There we were, all sitting down to an incredible dinner freshly made by our host, all talking about our experiences of travelling the world, the cultures we’ve seen and the fantastic people that make it so special. We ate, we laughed and we slept, but not before our BlaBlaCar driver had given us his thanks for introducing him to his first Couchsurfing experience, something he was certain he’d be doing more of from now on.

So How Much Was Saved?

For each of the lifts we’ve shared in big people carriers to the back seats of a Mini, we’ve been keeping a note of the expense we’ve had for the lift, but also the potential expense of the lift via public and private transport on the bus and train networks of each journey. The saving is staggering, and we’re really keen for you to see just how much you can save too whilst travelling on a budget around the world, or even just from one city to the next on business.

We Saved

Per person, we made a huge saving against the alternative transport offered to us either by using the train or the bus. Against the bus we saved approx. €200.75 per person, or around €400 for the both of us. Car sharing against the cost of the train on the same journeys, we saved €389.35 each, or approx. €780 for the two of us travelling together. A huge saving whether you’re a budget traveller or not.

Couldn’t You Hitchhike For Less?

People have asked this of us occasionally when we explained how we got to their doorstep and the short answer is that hitchhiking isn’t what it used to be.

Whilst you can still score a lift occasionally and there is a huge community still that uses their thumb and a witty cardboard sign to catch a free ride, there are fewer people doing it than ever before as international transport becomes cheaper and people less keen to pick up a traveller from the road due to safety concerns, which we understand.

Appreciating the safety concerns, we can see why BlaBlaCar is becoming such a strong alternative to traditional public and private transport on the train or bus. Not only can you feel safe with the added advantages of a pre-arranged lift, but using the reference and review system on the website, you can just see what kind of driver you’ll be travelling with before hand. Add on to that the certainty of a ride without having to hope that you’ll be picked up, the fact that the option to car share is also quite cheap really adds to the brilliance of the service.

Are you using car sharing?

36 Comments

Renegadesiha
on November 19, 2016 at 15:16

I’m sad the app doesn’t work in some countries..like the Czech Republic.

Blablacar’s driver feedback system is seriously flawed however. Drivers can cancel on passengers at last minute, or even not turn up, and the passenger will be unable to leave feedback to warn other passengers. It only allows passengers to leave feedback IF they have travelled with the driver!

From our experience the review system is actually pretty solid, but not in every country. The review and booking system seems to differ from one country to the next (France’s system is different to Germany, for example).

Sam
on July 18, 2015 at 10:59

Hi Dale,
Just wondering about the language barrier. Any problem to book a car and to communicate with the driver without knowing Spanish?

Never had a problem with language during any of our trips. Sometimes there’s a little communication before hand online that requires the help of Google Translate, but when the trip starts it’s normally fine – just as long as you arrive early and with the correct change in hand!

I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest. I suppose it would really depend on the capacity of the car as there are occasions where just two seats are available, yet others where there are five or more. For example, on our way to Barcelona we car shared in a minivan with another six people, so it’s not out of the question.Dale recently posted…Lights & The Invisible Walls Of Berlin

BlaBlaCar? Are you kidding? Why have I never heard of this before… this is genius! Traveling through Europe was definitely a dilemma for me since I wanted to see many countries, but it was prohibitively expensive! 😀 What a great way to lay out the savings, thanks for taking the time to post this–so helpful!Rashad Pharaon recently posted…My Visit To Byblos, Lebanon (part 2)

How much planning would you say is generally required? Our Germany Hospitality Club host turned us onto car sharing, but it never really worked out for us in regard to timing, destination and price (we usually used trains).NZ Muse recently posted…The single most defining food experience of my life…

The preparation is really dependent on who quickly people will message each other back. We’ve got in contact with some people who we’ve not heard back until the following day which has left us a little uncertain, but others have messaged us back within 5 mins confirming the ride. The response time is the same as if you’d be messaging a friend, if you’re okay with that time frame and you’re not planning something too last minute then you’ll be fine. Saying that, we’ve had some lifts that we’ve not confirmed until the night before, but it’s always worked out in the end.

This looks like such a great way to travel! I must admit I would be a little scared getting into a car with a stranger but I suppose travelling In A couple makes things easier !Jenna recently posted…Healthy eating and travelling in China.

Some of people we’ve met at the other end of the journey when it’s ended have asked us how we feel about safety, and it must be said that the review system on most of the websites from drivers and passengers makes a big difference for putting your mind at risk.

Great recommendations guys! I’m back in Europe and I was a little bit scared of prices I might pay for transport when travelling around, but your post has definitely calmed me down! By the way, I love travelling by buses and it’s gonna be a lot of fun for me!Agness recently posted…5 Free Things To Do In Florida

I’m more of a train guy, myself, but I do love the bus from time-to-time as well, but neither have ever given me the same in depth conversational experience that we’ve had in some of drives. It’s worth it for that alone. 🙂Dale recently posted…Create/Travel – Interview with Mindful Wanderlust

Angel
on December 7, 2016 at 19:41

Please i want to travel from Italy to Germany how much dos it cost n i would love to travel on d 9/or ten of this mon

This is an incredible resource guys, especially as Europe is so expensive for budget travelers. I had heard a little bit about car sharing, but wouldn’t have had any idea of how to go about actually doing it. Looks like it’s not just a great way to save money, but a wonderful way to make new friends as well. What’s not to love about it? 🙂Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted…Chewing the Fat with Jimmy Eats World!

I’ve never heard of carsharing before but think it’s genius! It can be time consuming and costly to coordinate bus and train schedules in Europe so this seems like a great alternative. My only concern would be the safety record of the driver, but it seems like the app has that covered with its review system.Heather recently posted…36 Hours in Tokyo

Wow, great idea! We’ve been trying to figure out how to get from Rome to Dubrovnik (while passing through Ljubljana) this upcoming summer without spending a fortune on busses, trains, ferries and the like. Originally we were going to rent a car, but then we saw the price tag and almost had a heart attack. Looks like we may have just found the perfect alternative! Thank you!Jessi recently posted…Paintball in Colorado: All’s Fair in Love and Chocolate

Oh I love Ljubljana! We were there last year and, though small, it’s such a lovely place to be and there’s a whole alternative community that we’d have happily just slipped in to and lived out the rest of our lives.

Yeah I used that last year too. Life saver in many situations but actually one of the parts of the trip I found most stressful. I found the majority of people to be totally unrealiable in replying to requests meaning I was left waiting until the last minute for a ride and not knowing where I was going to end up that night. Didn’t like that part of it. But when it worked smoothly, it was the best.Adam @ SitDownDisco recently posted…Europe trip – a photo story

That sounds really unfortunate, Adam. Perhaps we’ve just been really lucky during all of our rides, be we’ve never really had an communication problems, even when neither us or the driver speak a common language.

I’m really glad that you like the idea Casey, here’s hoping that you get to give it a chance when you get to Europe, but I do think it’s expanding internationally pretty quickly.Dale recently posted…With Earphones In – Le Trio Joubran (Palestine)